"The old white folks told me I was free. They had me hired out. I wasn't
staying with my owner. There wasn't nobody there with me but the white
folks where I was staying. That morning I got up to get breakfast
and there wasn't no fire and there wasn't so matches. I went to some
neighbors to get a chunk of fire and they told me to go back to my folks
because I was free. When I got back to the house they was mad and wanted
to whip me. So I just put the fire down and never cooked no breakfast
but jus' went on to my brother's. The reason they wanted to whip me was
because I had gone outside of the house without their knowing it.
"When I went to my brother's, I had to walk twelve miles. My brother
carried me to my mother and father. And then he took me back to old lady
Eford, and she told me to go on to my mother, that I was free now. So he
took me on back to my ma and pa. He said he'd do that so that I could
stay with them.